Well my previous post did attract two good comments: thank you Lytha and Karen. That phrase "the asphyxiation of curiosity" will remain with me.
A long meeting started with indecision as to whether we should eat anything (so much for workig with managers) and rattled on to the conclusion that we should complete a grid where "systems", "processes" and "people" are matched against short, medium and long term.
I suggested that we should look at the "operative myth" of our team. It's pretty mixed, overshooting the mark in some respects (no we do not "all work hard") but unduly pessimistic in others. Yes of course the graduates expect to be "empowered". And what exactly is "empowered"? I am empowered to ride when I get Brena out, however there is still "process" (communicating with her), "environment" (what the ground is like) and "knowledge" (knowing how to ride and having some sense of the broad subject of just what horses are about).
OK, so we should have the right to organise our desks as we wish. We should be allowed to decorate them. Oh, and I want a "myth wall" where we add personal items, trophies of success, indeed anything that defines who were are and what we do. Wish me luck!
I guess that I'd better complete that grid too. Sensibly too if I am really disciplined. For the dull people.
But curiosity has been driven from them. How can I reawaken that curiosity, of which a vestigial trace surely must remain? Writing has been such a therapy for me. Perhaps I should take the group away and get them going on storytelling? That could open their minds to the suppressed potential within.
Ah yes, suppressed potential. We're all growing. Last night I dreamt that I lived in a hut in a wild place and travelled, picking up mementos such as pebbles in places that I passed through. There were flints and others such stones in my bag. Occasionally I collected something that rotted and needed to be throw away. What a metaphor for life! It's good to collect treasures. Some need to be thrown away. The remainder must be valued and enjoyed for their quality and beauty.
So much of life is about realising potential. Working with Brena is about her potential and mine. How closely can I merge with her to work as a team. What performance can she produce? How can I hone my balance to make her task as easy as possible? What courage can I show when the relationship becomes stressed?
Nothing is stationary. Not if one has a thread of curiosity.
So again this falls to that peculiar thing called leadership. Either one leads or one follows. But one can lead in small ways. Because I have been given something I am obliged to use it, as if I possess some special knowledge of the terrain. (Indeed does a part of the terrain belong to me?) New realisation brings fresh challenge, and the realisation of that yields some satisfaction. It can be a virtuous circle. To get started one needs the momentum of a little moral courage, and then one is moving.
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